Published On: Feb 28, 2023, 07:13 IST
NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Centre to take a decision on whether it proposes to grant sanction for the attachment of movable and immovable assets of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for paying the arbitral award to the Reliance Infrastructure-owned Delhi Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL).
The high court granted time to the competent authorities in the central government to take the decision in this regard and place it on record while listing the matter for further hearing on March 2.
The high court said it would be expedient to take the decision on the issue before it proceeds further to deal with the objections taken by both the Centre and the Delhi government and which pertain to the limited liability principle. “…before the court proceeds to rule on the issue of whether the circumstances warrant the corporate veil of the corporation (DMRC) be lifted, it would appear expedient to call upon the Union government to take a decision on whether it proposes to accord sanction for the attachment of the movable and immovable assets of the corporation for the purpose of the satisfaction of the amount payable under the award,” Justice Yashwant Varma said.
The HC said, “In order to enable the competent authorities in the union government to take that decision and place the same on the record of the proceedings, let the matter be called again on March 2”.
The high court was hearing the execution petition filed by DAMEPL against the DMRC over the arbitration award passed in its favour on May 11, 2017.
An arbitral tribunal had ruled in favour of DAMEPL, which had pulled out of running the Airport Express metro line over safety issues, and accepted its claim that running the operations on the line was not viable due to structural defects in the viaduct through which the train would pass. Earlier this month, the court had noted the total amount of the award with interest till February 14, 2022 was Rs 8009.38 crore.
